Al Rausch
Rausch played 23 years, from 1969-1991, and had a career record of 829-174 (.829) with a career ERA of 0.70. He was a member of four Iowa ASA State Championship teams - two with Cedar Rapids Modern Piping (1977, 1979), one with Clear Lake Butt'r Topp (1983, where he was named Tournament Most Valuable Pitcher), and one in 1991 with Bosch/Rausch Financial Group, where he was once again named the tournament's Most Valuable Pitcher. Rausch played in 13 Iowa ASA State Tournaments, never finishing lower than 5th place. Rausch played in 12 ASA Regional Tournaments and was a part of three Regional Championship teams (1981, 1983, 1987), and was a member of five other teams that finished in the top three. He competed in seven ASA National Tournaments including 3rd-place finisher Collins Radio in 1987. Rausch was a member of three teams that finished in the top 10 of the national tournament in 1981, 1983 and 1991. Al Rausch played in six ISC World Tournaments, and was named Most Valuable Pitcher at the Iowa ISC State Tournament in 1991. Rausch also won three Minnesota ASA State Titles with Mankato Happy Chef, who played in three ISC World Tournaments in 1985, 1986 and 1988. He was an ABA All-American in 1983 and 1987, named to the ASA National All-Star Team in 1983, and the 1984 Sports Festival Team. His career began in Garnavillo where he played second base and outfield, and because he could throw hard, experimented with pitching. His pitching career began in earnest in Mingo, IA in 1972 where he compiled a 27-5 record. From there he went to Bloomington, Minnesota where his big-time softball career really began. He began competing against the best teams that the Midwest had to offer--Whitaker Buick, Clear Lake Buttertop, Eau Claire, Austin Moose and many others. And it was obvious that he had a special talent for throwing the softball. In 1974 Al returned to Iowa to play for the Boone Merchants and teamed up with Denny Linderbaum once more (they had played together in 1970 in Cresco). Al continued to build his reputation at Boone, and in one game fanned 21 of Sioux City’s Gene’s Tap hitters in 10 innings at the Fort Dodge Tournament. Unfortunately the Boone team folded in mid- season, but Al moved on to pitch with Welty Way of Cedar Rapids. With Welty, his career really took off--that year for example, he threw a 1-hitter against an Aurora team that finished 2nd at the ASA Nationals that year. Welty Way went on to finish 2nd behind the Des Moines Bombers in the Iowa ASA State Tourney in 1974, with Al winning 2 games, including a no-hitter in his opening game. Al continued to play with Welty Way in 1975, and the team added Gregg Bosch and Denny Linderbaum to the pitching staff. This pitching staff had tremendous success that season. At one point the staff was 56-7 and each pitcher had thrown no-hitters in the Cedar Rapids Major Open. The Aurora, Illinois paper that year called the Welty Way pitching staff, "the best young pitching staff in the nation." And, Al (along with still close friends Bosch and Linderbaum) says that team, with Mike Palleson, Steve Andrew, Ed W~ite, Cliff Rice, Max Elliot, Dick Zuccattol and John Muench to name just a few, was one of the greatest teams he's ever played with. Welty won 9 of the 11 tournaments that year, and one week-end, each of the three young pitchers beat the Aurora, Illinois team that had finished 2nd in the 1974 ASA Nationals. Unfortunately, injuries decimated the pitching staff for the 1975 Iowa State Tourney, and Welty Way finished a disappointing fifth place in 1975. Al's record for the year, however, was 30-1 with an ERA of 0.69, and he was well established as one of the dominant pitchers in the Midwest. After the 1975 season, Al had many opportunities to pitch for teams across the country, but chose to stay in Cedar Rapids until 1982. During his stay in Cedar Rapids, Al set numerous records in the Major Open, including career wins, career strikeouts, strikeouts in a 7-inning game (19), and career no-hitters. In 1977, he led Modern Piping to the. state championship at the ASA Open Tournament in Des Moines, gaining a measure of satisfaction of beating the Des Moines Bombers who had beaten Welty Way for the title in 1974. Modern went on to finish 3rd at the ASA Regionals in 1977, and that began a 5-year period in which Modern Piping had great success at both the ASA State and Regiona1s. In 1979, Modern again won the state title but finished 2nd at the Reqionals. In 1981, Modern finished 2nd at the state tourney, but came out of the loser's bracket at the Regionals to beat Clear Lake for the Regional crown. Al pitched the final game of that tourney, a 3-hit shutout with 14 strikeouts against the powerful Buttertop team. Modern went on to finish 9th at the ASA Nationals in 1981. Al moved to Clear Lake in 1982, and continued his success, compiling a 39-5 record. Unfortunately, Buttertop was upset in the State tourney that year and finished a disappointing 5th. But, Al was picked up by Modern Piping and helped them finish 2nd at the Regionals in St. Joseph, MO. But, 1983 proved to be the year that A1 really underscored just how dominant a pitcher he was. At one point during that year, Al won a remarkable 33 games in a row, with that string broken in Buttertop's final game at the ASA Nationals. During that streak, he also had an incredible 5 no-hitters in a row. At the 1983 ASA State Tournament, he pitched all 5 victories, giving up only 2 runs the entire tourney and those in the championship game against Collins Radio, and was named Most Valuable Pitcher Al's 1983 success continued at the Regionals where he won 4 games and saved a 5th in Clear Lake's winning of the Regional Tournament in Topeka, KS., and was again named MVP. Then, Clear Lake went on to finish 9th ''in ''the National Tournament, with Al winning three games there, and losing only to Ty Stofflet. He finished the season with a 40-5 record, a 0.60 ERA and 471 K's in 302 innings, and was named 2nd team All-American for his performance. One other highlight ot that 1983 season: Al was named to the u.s. ASA All-Star Team which played a series ofgames against defending ASA National Champion, the Franklin Cardinals. Al pitched one game against the Cardinals, throwing a no-hitter against them! In 1984, Modern Piping and Buttertop merged to form a powerhouse team, the Iowans, and that team had one of the most successful seasons in Iowa softball history. The Iowans won their first 33 games, with Al going 12-0 during that time. They won their first 6 tournaments, and going into the ASA Regionals as defending champs (as Buttertop in 1983), the Iowans had a record of 82-11, with Al at 31-4. Unfortunately, the team finished 2nd at the Regionals, losing 2-1 and 1-0 to a very talented St. Louis team. After the 1984 season ended, the Iowans folded, and Al joined Mankato, Minnesota's Happy Chef team where he continued his success. In 1985-86, Al and Happy Chef won the ASA State Title each year, and finished in the top 20 in the ASA Nationals those two years. But, 1987 proved to be Al's best year of his career at that time. He rejoined Gregg Bosch and his Cedar Rapids friends to play with Collins Radio. Collins finished 2nd behind a powerful Teleconnect team (who later won the ISC World Championship) in the 1987 ASA State Tourney, but qualified for the Regionals. Collins then won the Regional Tournament, with Al throwing a 3-hit shutout over Ames in the championship game. The ASA Nationals were held in Springfield, MO in 19S7, and Al proved once again what a dominating force he was. He pitched shutouts over Guanella Brothers, Teleconnect and also beat an Arizona team 3-2 before losing to eventual champion Seattle while throwing a no-hitter against them! For this tremendous tournament, Ai was named to the All- American team as Collins finished 3rd in the nation in 1987 Unfortunately, Collins chose not sponsor a team in 1988, ant Al returned to Mankato in 1988 and 1989. There, Al continued his string of success until shoulder and elbow injuries ended his 1989 season prematurely. During the off-season, Al had surgery performed onboth the troublesome shoulder and elbow, and prepared forthe 1990 season. In 1990, Al, along with his now business partner Gregg Bosch, created a new Cedar Rapids team named Bosch-Rausch Financial Group. This team was made up of Al and Gregg, old friend Denny Linderbaum and some former teamates like Steve Calvert and Steve Hebler. But, new names like Brian Dixon, Todd Twachtmann, Doug Peyton, Mike Stickney and Bruce Bielema added a blend of youth to the newly formed team. As is often the case, Bosch-Rausch took time to blend, but was one of the favorites going into the ASA State Tournament in 1990. However, they were upset in the 2nd round and finished only 4th. Nevertheless, Bosch-Rausch qualified for the Regionals, and there Al showed that he still could dominate by throwing a 1-0 victory against the Waterloo team that had eliminated Bosch-Rausch at the Iowa state tourney. Before the 1991 season began, Al announced that it would be his final one. And what a final season it was, Al, now fully recovered from the two surgeries in 1989, had a truly storybook ending to his career. He won three games at the Iowa ASA Open State Tournament, and won the state Championship over the defending champions Des Moines Metros. He was named Most Valuable Pitcher at that tourney. Bosch-Rausch went on to a 9th place finish in the ASA Nationals in Midland, MI where Al won 2 games. But, not only did Al have success at the ASA tournaments--he and Bosch-Rausch also won the ISC State Championship at Walcott and was named Most Valuable Pitcher at that tournament. Then, Bosch-Rausch went on to finish 7th at the ISC World Tournament in Sioux City. Al's final season ended with a 26-8 record, giving him a total of 829 wins and 174 loses, a .829 winning percentage over his career, with a career ERA of 0.70. That career spanned 23 years, and during that time he pitched in 13 Iowa ASA State Open Tourneys, winning four state titles here, and three more in Minnesota. He appeared in 12 ASA Regional Tournaments and his teams won three Regional titles and finished either 2nd or 3rd another five times. He appeared in seven ASA National Tournaments, and six ISC World Tournaments. He was an ASA All-American in both 1983 and 1987, was selected to play for the U.S. ASA National All-Star Team in 1983, and was also selected to pitch at the 1984 National sports Festival in1984. Beyond playing fast-pitch softball, however, Al was also very active in working with young pitchers--both male and female--over the years. Al in 1977 asked Mary Rausch, Denny Linderbaum and GreggBosch to join him in forming the All-Iowa Pitching Clinic (AIPC), and this group held numerous clinics at high schools and colleges for many years. The AIPC staff, along with Manager Jim Caviness and catcher Larry Anderson, literally worked with thousands of young pitchers and catchers during that time, and helped develop some outstanding players who are still competing today. Al continues his involvement with softball today, serving as Assistant Coach to Mary Rausch with Coe College's women's team. In the 1994 season, Coe's team won their conference title and went on to finish 3rd at the Division III NCAA Regional Tournament. In summary, Al Rausch was one of the most dominant pitchers in Iowa during the 1970's, and 1980's before ending his career in 1991 with another ASA State Title, an ISC State Title, and top 10 finishes in both the ASA National and ISC World Tournaments. His was truly an Iowa Hall of Fame career. * Formed All-Iowa Pitching Clinic in 1977 and, along with Gregg Bosch Denny Linderbaum, did pitching clinics across Iowa for years.